About the Archive

The Southern Colorado Obscura is an independent digital archive and publication dedicated to the unexplained, the overlooked, and the poorly documented history of the Southern Colorado region. We collect, preserve, and present accounts of frontier lore, historical curiosities, unsolved cases, and phenomena that have not found a home in the conventional historical record.

Our archive draws from historical newspapers, county records, estate papers, coroner's reports, personal correspondence, and oral accounts collected over several decades of research. Where sources are identified, they are noted. Where they cannot be named, that too is noted. We acknowledge that the record is incomplete, that memory is unreliable, and that some things resist easy explanation.

What We Cover

The archive is organized into standing desks: the Dispatches desk publishes first-person accounts and letters from historical figures; the Investigations desk maintains open case files on unexplained events; the Crime desk documents historical criminal proceedings; the Obituaries desk records unusual deaths; the Classifieds desk reprints period notices and advertisements; the Oddities desk collects curiosities from the almanac record. The Serials desk runs two ongoing columns: D. Mortimer's Department of Final Affairs, and the field notes of Silas Creed.

We do not cover current events. Our scope is historical, with particular emphasis on the period between 1860 and 1930, though we do not hold rigidly to that boundary when the record demands otherwise.

Editorial Standards

We present historical material with care and without embellishment. When we reconstruct voices or scenes from fragmentary records, we say so. When a source is disputed or contested, we note the dispute. We do not present speculation as fact, though we do present fact as more interesting than it is usually allowed to be.

The archive is maintained by an independent editorial desk. We accept correspondence, corrections, and submissions of relevant historical materials. Readers with documents, photographs, or accounts bearing on Southern Colorado history are encouraged to write to us at [email protected].

Advertising

The archive is supported in part by advertising. Advertisements appearing on this site are delivered by Google and are not endorsed by the archive. We do not accept direct advertising arrangements and have no commercial relationship with any product or service advertised on these pages.

The archive does not represent or speak for any historical individual, family, organization, or institution. All material is presented for historical and educational purposes. The Southern Colorado Obscura is an independent publication and is not affiliated with any government body, historical society, or academic institution.